Moore Lodge, 74 Greencastle Road, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4JL

Moore Lodge is a one-and-a-half storey, three-bay house dating from the second half of the 17th century, south-east facing on the west side of Greencastle Road, Kilkeel. It is of interest for its age and historic associations with the Kilmorey Estate, and retains many of its original special features within an attractive setting.

The main block has a pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and concrete skews. Two concrete-coped chimneys, each with octagonal pots, sit one on either side of the central bay. A return roof is pitched, tying into the main roof and hipped to the gable, also naturally slated, with a large cement-rendered chimney at the hip. Rainwater goods are semicircular metal. All walls are wet-dashed and unpainted, with a deep smooth cement base course and projecting corbelled eaves.

Abutting the central bay of the main façade is a modern gabled porch with a pitched natural slate roof, its walls finished as the main façade. The left cheek contains a six-panelled painted timber door, and the front gable has a small 6-over-6 sliding sash window with horns. The right cheek is blank. The left and right bays of the main block each have a large 6-over-6 sliding sash window. All windows throughout are modern replica sliding sashes with exposed boxes, granite cills, and smooth rendered architraves and reveals.

The right gable of the main block has a 6-over-6 sliding sash window at first floor level; the rest of that wall is blank. The left gable has a modern advanced canted bay window of five cheeks at ground floor, fitted with multi-glazed timber windows and concrete cills resting on dashed walling, with a flat leaded roof. At first floor on this gable is a 6-over-6 sliding sash window.

The rear elevation is flanked on the right by a two-storey return and on the left by a two-storey annex. The remaining rear wall between them has, at ground floor right, a fixed window of four panes by two, and at first floor two windows: a 2-over-2 sliding sash to the left and a 6-over-6 sliding sash to the right, the latter in line with the ground floor window below.

The right cheek of the return has, at ground floor right of centre, a modern tongue-and-groove door with a nine-paned inset window. To the left of this door, centred on the wall, is a 2-over-2 sliding sash window, and to the right a narrow 1-over-1 window. At first floor, set to the left of the door below, is a 3-over-6 sliding sash, and to the right a 2-over-4 sliding sash. A single-storey shed abuts the left corner of this elevation.

The rear elevation of the return has two small 3-over-3 sashes at ground floor, the right one having a higher head, and at first floor centre a small 2-over-2 sliding sash. A small outbuilding abuts the right corner of this elevation.

The left cheek of the return, facing into the rear yard, is abutted at its right end by a one-storey gabled porch with a pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles. This porch has a modern six-panel bolection painted timber door on its left cheek, a 2-over-2 sliding sash window in its front gable, and a blank right cheek. To the left of the porch at ground floor are two sash windows: a 3-over-6 to the left and a taller 6-over-6 to the right. At first floor there are three sash windows: a small 1-over-1 at the far left at the join with the main block, a 3-over-6 centrally positioned directly above the ground floor 6-over-6 window, and a 3-over-6 over the porch.

The annex, abutting the main block at the rear left, has a pitched natural slate roof, hipped where it meets the main block and gabled to the north end, with a smooth rendered chimney with octagonal pots at the gable end. Its walls are finished as the main block and run parallel to it. The south-east facing front elevation of the annex has two small sliding sash windows at ground floor: an 8-over-8 to the left and a narrower 4-over-2 to the right. Centred at first floor is a large 6-over-6 sliding sash. The gable end of the annex is blank and is abutted by a lower coach house.

The rear elevation of the annex has a 2-over-4 sliding sash window at ground floor left, formerly a door, and a 6-over-6 sliding sash at first floor centre. The hipped gable has a painted tongue-and-groove door at ground floor left, and at the far right, at the join with the main block, a 2-over-2 sliding sash window. Directly above at first floor is a 6-over-6 sliding sash window.

The coach house, abutting the annex, has a monopitched natural slate roof draining into the yard, and blank dashed walls with a rounded corner facing towards the front of the house. Its rear wall has a pair of tongue-and-groove sheeted top-sliding doors opening into the rear yard.

The outbuilding abutting the rear right return is single storey with a pitched natural slate roof. Its south-west rear wall and north-west gable are rubble stone finished with an ochre-coloured limewash. Its front wall, facing into the yard, is dashed to match the house, with a door to the left and a two-paned window to the right. The south-east gable is also dashed to match the house.

To the rear are a barn and a two-storey animal house with loft over; a third range of outbuildings has been demolished. The barn is at the rear of the yard with its front gable facing south-east. It has a pitched natural slate roof, hipped to the rear with a modern skylight on the left pitch, and ochre-washed rubble stone walls. Its front gable has a modern glazed plywood door and a 1-over-1 top-hung fixed window in the gable above. The right wall has a fixed six-pane window, formerly a doorway. The left wall is much altered, with a modern window to the left end and a doorway to the right.

The animal house, to the right of the barn, has a pitched natural slate roof with a chimney on the right gable, and rubble stone walls. Its south-west facing front wall has a flight of stone stairs leading to a first floor door at the right. At ground floor there are a number of modern doors and windows, with similar openings at first floor. Its rear gable has a sheeted door at first floor, and both the rear wall and right gable are blank.

To the rear of these outbuildings stands a flat-iron field gate with the name 'MOORE' etched on the right end of its top horizontal bar.

The boundary wall to the road is random rubble with a cement cope, and features an ornate cast-iron pedestrian gate dating from around 1900 at the right. At the left end of the wall is a pair of similarly ornate carriage gates, hung on stout octagonal rendered piers with conical caps and wrought-iron finials, made by W.B. Greer of Belfast. These gates and piers are included within the extent of the listing alongside the house itself.

The front garden is a large lawn with a gravel driveway running along its south-west edge to the house, and continuing outside the north-east side of the house into the rear yard, where it meets a side lane. A side lane off the main road, to the north-east of the complex, has a pair of traditional flat-iron gates on granite posts. On its northern side stands an outbuilding with a pitched natural slate roof and cast in-situ concrete walls with integral buttresses. Its south-east facing front gable is lined with cement render and has a large pair of doors, with the date '1913' inset in the cement above. The north-east wall has an infilled window; the remaining walls are blank.

Moore Lodge takes its name from the Moore family, who had a long association with the Kilmorey Estate as freeholders. The family apparently lived at Mourne Park in the late 18th century. When the Kilmoreys took up residence in the early 19th century, the Moores were given Moore Lodge, though the building may be considerably older — an age suggested by what appear to be gun loops in the fabric. John Moore, described as seneschal, is recorded as resident here in Bradshaw's 1819 directory, apparently employed as estate manager of Mourne Park. The house and two-storey return are shown on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map and valuation, at which time the house measured 39 feet by 20 feet by 14 feet 6 inches, and the return 31 feet by 18 feet by 15 feet, corresponding to the present front block and two-storey return. The 1863 valuation again noted John Moore as occupant, with measurements broadly similar but with the addition of a second return measuring 15 feet by 16 feet 6 inches and one storey high. The 1873 valuation records a "new back wing and new office", possibly referring to the annex. The Nicholson family is first noted in the 1896 valuation. The mature trees around the house were used as a sight line by local seamen in the 19th century to guide themselves safely into Derryoge Harbour.

The house underwent major repair works in 1994 under the supervision of architect Dennis Piggot. During this work a 19th-century canted porch was removed from the left gable of the main block, all walls were stripped of their original ochre-coloured lime render, and the interior was stripped of most of its original fabric. These works also uncovered gun loops in the rear wall at ground floor, as well as earlier openings on the façade. These included a granite-dressed coach arch on the left bay; on the centre bay at ground floor, a window; on the right bay, a door with a window to its right; and at first floor on the central and right bays, just below the eaves, small window openings.